In the Tunnels
by Siri Catriona
Summary: Side story one-shot to 'What did you do'. The adventure is said and done for our trio, but who is this new girl? An unnamed girl is put through a series of tests by the military researchers. Came to me via dreamland. T 'cause I'm paranoid.


**Hello, all!**

**This one-shot is a branchoff from my main FMA story 'What did you do?'. If you've read it, don't rely on the mini spoilers in this, cause I might change my mind and have an alturnate ending. Just a warning!**

**Onward!**

They did... many horrible things to us. The researchers.

After they had us all rounded up, they sent us, as a whole, into the caves below the school. Once released into the caves, some of us hid instantly. I was one of them. When the mine elevator stopped, I launched off and hid behind the next boulder I could find. About twenty people out of the origonal hundred did the same. But after a few seconds, the elevator went back up to the main research floor, carrying the rest of the taken girls with it.

The tunnels echo'd with their screams for many hours.

I made a lot of friends over the months in the tunnels, but almost none of them survived.

After a while, an epidemic started throughout the tunnels. It was a sickness without a name, and it only stayed around one particular tunnel - the tunnel of blood. That's what I called it, anyway. I've heard the survivors call it other names like 'the nightmare tunnel' or 'the tunnel of the lost'. If we were being bold, some of us even called it 'the Philosipher's tunnel'.

Many people were lost in that tunnel.

After a few weeks in the darkness, something interesting happened. A researcher by the name of Brian Fouts came into the tunnels. I remembered him. He was one of the few scientists there that had a heart during the experaments, and he had been in charge of escourting us to and from the human transmutation circles.

But he got stuck. He was trapped in one of his own tunnels and only I was around to help him. What did he tell me to do? Go into the Philosipher's tunnel and get the supplies hidden there. I told him it was madness, but he said that I would also find things I would desprately need in the future there. So I went.

During my time in the tunnel of blood, there was a contest. It was sort of like tug-of-war, but more deadly. You loose, you die. End of story. It was only afterwards that we discovered that the ropes used were branched throughout the tunnels, meaning by winning, we killed our own comrades.

I got out of the Philosipher's tunnel with supplies in hand. I didn't know what they all were, but one was definately a rope. With it, I hauled Brian out of his prison, and slapped him. I told him of the contest, and asked why he hadn't warned us about it. He had the decency to look ashamed, and I left him there, taking the supplies with me.

Of the twenty that ecaped, only three were left.

I knew these three, and so I thought I was doomed. One was Jessica, a strong girl who had a hard life working for her maniac father. She survived the human transmutation many times, but lost a piece of her soul, which was now in her father's possesion.

The next was less likely to survive, but had better luck than me. Sarah Cottrel, one of the youngest of the girls that had been dumped in here, had gone what most would call 'insane' long before our time in the tunnels. She claims that she's from an alturnate dimension where her best friend had been kidnapped. Almost no one believed her.

And then me, just a lost girl that was able to adapt to the challenges given. I was nothing compared to them, so I was sure I would die.

I was wrong. We all met in the middle and Jessica took the lead, making a plan for escape. I handed over the supplies, thinking they would help. And boy, did they. We escaped by blowing a hole in one of the tunnels, but split up when the guards came to apprehend us.

I don't know what happened to them. I just ran and never looked back.

Years later - many years later - I met one of the most famous trio's in all of Amestris.

Edward Elric, the Fullmetal Alchemist.

Alphonse Elric, the boy who lived.

Kiki Arashi, the seer.

They asked me questions, I told them stories. Before they all left to travel the world, they asked me to do one thing. Take them to the tunnels so they could see for themselves. I obliged.

So there I was, sitting on my boulder, staring at the rocky wall that I had known for so long, when Kiki came to sit beside me.

"Are you alright?"

I chuckled. "No." Looking at her, and then my surroundings. "This place was my prison for months. I'm not completely alright with seeing it again."

She nodded, then held up her hand, revealing something dull and round. "Here."

My eyes switching to her hand, I gasped. "I - is that..."

"Yeah," she said, looking gulity-ish. "Ed found it on what we assumed was Brian's body. As it turns out, he was trying to help you three the whole time."

I took the dirty pocketwatch from her hand and weighed it in my own, studying it. "Did I ever tell you the full names of the people I escaped with?"

"One was Jessica Kreger, right?"

"And the other one?"

She paused, thinking. "I don't think so."

"Cottrel." She stiffened, as if someone had shocked her with electricity. "Her name was Sarah Cottrel. I can see it means something to you. She claimed she was from somewhere else, but most of us thought she was mad."

"Do you know where she is? Do you know where I can find her?" She asked, as if urgent.

"No." I smiled. "I get it now. You were the friend she talked about, right? The one that was supposed to come with her?"

After a few seconds, Kiki relaxed somewhat. "You were right, in a sense. She is insane, but insane about fictional charactors. She kept trying to get me to read this one book over and over, but I kept turning it down." She smiled. "Maybe if I hadn't, things would have turned out differently here."

"What do you mean?"

She chuckled. "The title of this book was 'Fullmetal Alchemist'."

**Alright, that's all folks!**

**Amazingly enough, this little plot bunny came to me in a dream. Ah, the wonders of late night chocolate milk and coldplay. Seriously! In the dream, there was the tunnel of blood, the sickness, the researcher, and the pocketwatch. All I had to do was fill in the blanks!**

**Bonus points if you can guess the girls name!**

**Remember, I loves la' reveiws! So keep em' comin!**


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